SLUMDOG SWEEPS THE OSCARS AND THE WORLD

Okay so Slumdog millionaire has bagged 8 Oscars. It has officially swept the world of its feet. A.R Rehman has brought two Oscars and one for sound mixing makes it three for India.

I watched the movie a day before the Oscars on Tatasky(it was a cheap deal!). It is a nice movie, no doubt about that. The music given by Rehman is also good and overall the film does deserve some awards. For me, the children in the film were the real stars of the film. They have acted superbly in the film. Of course due credit should go to the director and other people including various technicians to have made it look the way it did.

But after watching the film, one of the things that i realised was that there could be several themes of the film. Some persons, after watching the film would say(and have said rather vocally) that it is a dirty depiction of poverty and slums of India. Well that's their idea of the film, cant stop them from thinking that. Another set of modern spiritual philosophisers would say that it is about the optimism, the never say die spirit of the poor in India. Some other people would say that it is an Indian love story where the hero loves the heroine from childhood, various obstacles come in their way. They separate from each other due to the circumstances only to meet again when they have grown up. Enter the villain. And in the end the hero fights and gets his heroine. Lovers reunited. A classic Hindi love story. But for me, the story shows the learning process of an individual, which in the movie is depicted by the life of Jamal. What was striking was the way in which the filmmaker has depicted the learning process of Jamaal. How small incidents in his life contribute to the learning process which helps him answer the questions to win the show 'who wants to be a millionaire'.

Well that settled, now the music and the film are certainly good but the fact is that Rehman has been given splendid music for our films for almost the past two decades. And if the music of slumdog deserves the award then most of his other work also does. It is only a matter of opportunity that he got to give the music for a Hollywood film which brought him under contention for the award.

Also as far as the film is concerned there have been numerous other Indian films which are even more entertaining than slumdog and contain some exceptional performances by our actors. But again the fact that it was directed by a Hollywood director and was a Hollywood film was the reason that it came under contention for the awards.

Anyway it is certainly a great moment for India because the talent of India has been recognised by the world. And also the film may be a Hollywood film but most things related with it are Indian including the actors and technicians.

So, JAI HO SLUMDOG AND JAI HO INDIA

OBAMANIA

Obamania has hit the world. The swearing in of Barack Obama has aroused hopes of a better future not just in America but around the world. In many ways Mr. Obama is the perfect face of the change that every American hopes of.

The reasons for the phenomenal success of Barack Obama are many. Firstly, the poor performance of the Bush administration preceding Mr Obama lead to a general feeling of discontent and want of change among the citizens of the US. It has been seen in the past in different democracies that a poor performance by one administration is often the reason for the electoral success of another government, a new government, a government that promises change. Same holds true in this case as well. The poor performance of the preceding bush administration contributed a great deal to the success of Barack Obama. The fact that Mr Obama represented the change better than anybody else could, further strengthened his case. The swearing in of Barack Obama as the president of the US , The first African American president of the United States of America, definitely would be a change incomparable to any other event. Add to that the quality to deliver exceptional public speeches that connect with the listeners, speeches with great content, speeches that arouse hope and speeches that promise change. The result, Mr Barack Obama, now President Obama has made history to become the first African American president of the United States of America.

What remains to be seen however is that , will the Obama administration be able to live up to the vast expectations of people from all around the world. There would be an immense pressure of expectations on him and he would have to work hard to live up to them. Also Mr Obama would have to make the people understand that it would take time to get out of the mess that they are currently in. People hoping that Mr. Obama would be able to pull of something magical to improve the prevailing conditions would also have to be made to understand that this will not be the case. All in all there are some tough times ahead for President Obama, and it remains to be seen whether he will be successful in dealing with them or not. The one thing that would make matters easier for him is the quality of being able to connect with people.